Lockheed Martin will compete for the next phase of the massive Integrated Wireless Network (IWN), a federal project to provide secure, interoperable nationwide wireless communications for federal agents and allow multi-agency operations between the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury.

The SAFECOM Program, a joint initiative of the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury, brought together officials from local, state, federal, and tribal governments to improve wireless interoperability.

The $10 billion trunked network, will use interoperable, Project 25 VHF radios with a nationwide, IP backbone. Handheld, Motorola Project 25 radios can run over $2,000 a pop.

IWN will bring enhanced voice and data services to field agents and officers, enabling them to perform their missions more safely and effectively,” said Gordon McElroy, vice president of homeland security systems for Lockheed Martin. The current IWN design is based on a VHF, Project 25 trunked system utilizing a packet switched Internet Protocol (IP) backbone.

IWN is designed to help enable mission data to reach officials in the field faster and more consistently. It will also enhance agent and officer safety through improved coverage and increased situational awareness.

Jointly managed by the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Treasury, IWN will support more than 80,000 agents and officers responsible for law enforcement, protective services, homeland defense and disaster response missions.

Standardized 802.16 platforms might also enable, police, highway, public service and commercial traffic to share a high-speed backbone. With interoperability. With live on-scene video. Soon support for 5.9GHz ITS (highway) services and 4.9 Ghz licensed public service radios may be required.

The 800 Mhz trunk can’t handle it.

The HP PocketPC Phone, h6315, $587 (GSA), is a cell phone that comes with 802.11b, Bluetooth, Microsoft Office compatibility, a 0.3-megapixel digital camera, a 200MHz Intel processor, 64M of RAM, and a SecureDigital slot.

Flarion’s CompactFlash card and soon Mobile WiMax cards will deliver broadband everywhere. Floor plans and hazmat sites are uploaded to handhelds while firefighters are in route in Chicago. The upstream speed necessary for two-way video may not be available in HSDPA-enhanced cellular.

Nextel/Sprint/WiMax towers can soon deliver licensed interoperable broadband radios (at 1.9, 2.6 & 4.9 GHz or Nextel’s consenus bands) as well as unlicensed (2.4/5 GHz) bands for the public. Everyone wins. Inexpensive, data-rich PocketPC-based platforms can supply interoperable voice, video and data.

If “city clouds” are unfair to local telecommunications firms, what about “federal clouds”? What about Sprint/Nextel, Verizon or Cingular?

They’re not potted plants. They are building nationwide EV-DO and HSDPA high speed mobile networks. Project 25 radios are all about voice. They use narrow (mostly) voice channels, generally 12.5 kHz wide. These are not wideband (1.25 or 5 MHz) channels. Perhaps Sprint/Nextel could deliver a “ruggedized” cell service for billions less. In the 700 Mhz band. Nextel’s vacated spectrum is opening up. The Senate earlier this year established a firm date for broadcasters to clear the 24 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band for public-safety users.

That’s what competition is all about…avoiding $10B black holes with limited public benefit.

Motorola’s Project 25-compliant SmartZone trunking technology can integrate communications of individual subsystems over large geographic areas such as a region, county, state, country, or small geographic areas with as few as two sites. Each subsystem can be designed as a remote single site, IntelliRepeater site, voting, or simulcast.

Your editor has no real understanding of the needs, goals and options surrounding Project 25 radios and the Integrated Wireless Network backbone so we’re hesitant to pass judgement….still. The Treasury has invested a huge amount of time, money (and patience) trying to get disparate agencies to talk to each other. But what are we getting in the end?

If the feds, state agencies and cities cooperated more, perhaps taxpayers could pay less and get more. With broadband. With interoperability. With a “city cloud” that does double-duty — and pays for itself.

If WiMax lives up to its claims, a $20,000 base-station could be available in 2005 that will support up to 60 wireless T1 equivalent connections, enabling a competitive alternative to wired broadband access. Libera is using unlicensed 5.8 GHz Aperto gear to backbone the UK even though they own licensed 28GHz spectrum. IBM & Proxim are delivering the MAN with Proxim pre-Wimax serving 15 schools in Texas. GigaBeam’s point-to-point wireless system can even supply multi-gigabit backbones. Internet Access On Trains might be another benefit/client.

IBM’s Capital Wireless Integrated Network (CapWIN) went online in June. Housed at the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Transportation Technology, it wirelessly transmits instant messaging, secure e-mail and images to as many as 10,000 users on their personal digital assistants or wireless notebook PCs. Meanwhile, Flarion’s 700 MHz broadband wireless trial in Washington DC sends voice, data and video from the field. Public Service WiFi Roaming is not an impossible dream. It’s reality.

Wireless technology will be used to coordinate and enhance care of mass casualties in a terrorist attack or natural disaster in a new federally funded research project at UCSD called the Wireless Internet Information System for Medical Response in Disasters (WIISARD).

The goal of WIISARD is to provide emergency personnel and disaster command centers with medical data to track and monitor the condition of thousands of victims on a moment-to-moment basis.

The Integrated Wireless Network can’t handle it.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Monday, December 20th, 2004 at 1:15 am.